German investigators are examining evidence suggesting a sabotage team used Poland as an operating base to damage the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea in September.
The investigators have reconstructed the two-week voyage of the "Andromeda", a 15-meter yacht suspected of being involved in the sabotage of the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, Zawya.com reported.
According to people familiar with the voyage, the sabotage crew had placed deep-sea explosives on Nord Stream 1, before they set the vessel on a course towards Poland. It added that Germany was trying to match DNA samples found on the vessel "to at least one Ukrainian soldier".
Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 put Europe's reliance on Russian natural gas in the political spotlight. The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines hastened the region's switch to other energy suppliers.
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump 110 billion cubic meters of natural gas a year to Germany.
The Washington Post reported this week that the US had learned of a Ukrainian plan to attack the pipelines three months before they were damaged by the explosions, which occurred in the economic zones of Sweden and Denmark.
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